Analyses for association between nasal allergy and candidate genes for atopy

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The gene for the beta chain of the high-affinity receptor for IgE (FcεRIβ) and the gene for Interleukin-4 (IL-4) have been proposed as candidate genes for atopy. A coding variant Glu237Gly of FcεRIβ as well as a promoter variant -524C/T of IL-4 has been studied in various populations with asthma and atopy, and the results were controversial for association of the variant with atopy/ asthma. Because nasal allergy is a more common atopic disease and shows less remission than asthma, we aimed to analyze whether these genetic polymorphisms correlate with nasal allergy. For this study, we enrolled 233 patients with nasal allergy and 100 control subjects. Further, three subgroups were selected : patients with perennial nasal allergy (n=149), Japanese cedar pollinosis (n=l89), and allergy to multiple allergens (n=45). The allele frequency of Gly237 in the controls and patients was 0.14 and 0.20, and the frequency of Gly237-positive subjects was 0.23 and 0.356, respectively. The χ^2 test showed significant association between Gly237-positive subjects and nasal allergy (p<0.05), perennial nasal allergy (p<0.05), Japanese cedar pollinosis (p<0.05), and allergy to multiple allergens (p<0.001). In contrast, the promoter variant of IL-4 showed no association with nasal allergy. Among all 333 subjects, we observed a relationship between Gly237 and elevated levels of serum total IgE (>250 IU/ml, p<0.05) and very high IgE (>1000 lU/ml, p<0.001). Among patients positive for a specific IgE, Gly237 was associated with high IgE for HD (p<0.05), mite (p<0.05), and Japanese cedar pollen (p<0.05). These results suggest that the Glu237Gly variant of the FcεRIβ gene is involved in the development of nasal allergy through the process for the production of specific as well as non-specific IgE antibodies.